Genuine Diamonds for Dummies

diamond cleavage planes

We gripe a lot hereabouts at self-appointed freelancers who are convinced that they can safely reword any material about any subject and create content that can be authoritative. The journalism / communications majors who infested eHow.com are some of the worst, probably because they've been taught somewhere that they are infallible researchers. Fie on them, because it's not true... it's definitely not true of Dan Fielder, if his Sciencing.com article "What Are Genuine Diamonds?" is any indication.

There are a lot of ways to answer that question, but we think the most likely is to contrast diamonds with rhinestones, cubic zirconia, paste, and other faux gems. Fielder, however, decided that the answer should be to differentiate between natural and synthetic gems. Yup: that's the whole difference. According to Dan,

"Synthetic diamonds are made by humans in a lab. However, genuine diamonds are mined from the ground and created by nature... it can be difficult to tell the difference without expert knowledge and testing methods."

That's pretty much the size of it, according to Dan, although it might have been nice of him to explain the "lab" process (it's a lot more industrial than laboratory, FWIW). It would have been even nicer of him to talk about differentiation a layman could do between real and faux diamonds... Whatever the case, Dan figured he was done and all that remained was to pad out his answer so it was long enough for him to get paid. Ahhh, the minimum word count, bane of the eHowian's existence!
That's why Fielder rummaged around online to find more about the history, properties, sources, and uses of natural diamonds. Along the way he barfed up such bogosity as,

"Diamonds have four points of weakness, known as 'directions of cleavage.'"

Sorry, Danny, but a direction of cleavage is a direction; and therefore a plane and not a "point"! Or how about,

"Diamonds are located mostly in areas that have had volcanic activity or erosion..."

Ignoring for now the utter nonspecificity of Dan's "areas that have had ... erosion" bushwa, diamonds aren't generally associated with "volcanic activity": the kimberlite pipes than contain diamonds are usually found at the interior of a continent, not the active margins. But wait, there's more:

"Diamonds are embedded in some saw blades to increase tool effectiveness."

Well, yeah, if by "effectiveness" you mean "hardness," Dan. And finally, he gets ambiguous:

"Diamonds are valuable when incorporated in various mechanical parts where low friction or wear resistance is important."

We guess he means low friction or high wear resistance is important. Still and all, Danny-boy did a crappy job with his assignment: what's the difference between a genuine diamond and a fake diamond, Dan? You can't tell us? No wonder you're the Dumbass of the Day!

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